Kent Bush: A thoughtful look at gun control

This weekend, I violated the prime directive of the National Rifle Association. I encouraged a meaningful discussion on gun control.

Kent Bush

This weekend, I violated the prime directive of the National Rifle Association. I encouraged a meaningful discussion on gun control.

Gun control is an interesting issue in America. It is never the right time to discuss it.

Either proponents are accused of “trying to politicize a tragedy” or if you wait a year to discuss an event, opponents say, “are you really still bringing that up?”

The end result is that obvious rules that would allow for the co-existence of free gun ownership and policies that would limit or prevent events like the one in Aurora, Colo., this weekend are never discussed.

On my Facebook page, I asked my friends to share ideas that could bring both ends of the political spectrum together.

I thought about using Twitter, but Twitter is the most caustic environment in which humans can live.

If you ask a thoughtful question there, the answers rage from "you're fat" to "you're a communist."

But on Facebook, my friends are a thoughtful bunch. We try to make each other laugh and think and block out our friends who can't survive in the rarified air of a discussion that requires logic beyond that which can be contained on a bumper sticker.

I posed this question, “I'm not trying to start a fight. I truly want sound opinions on this. The Colorado shooter bought guns legally at various outdoors stores over a few months. Would the 2nd Amendment really not allow us to ask a guy with zero guns why he escalated his arsenal to include shotguns, assault rifles and two 40 caliber Glocks in a matter of months? It seems freedom could be preserved and a crazy guy might have either been caught in advance or at least limited in his scope. Thoughts?”

A dozen of my friends chimed in during a 40-comment conversation that was incredibly well-reasoned and was completed without anyone’s patriotism or paternity being questioned.

One thing we all agreed on was that our mental health system is equally in need of reform as our gun control laws.

One obvious solution in this case would have been a national application database that would have alerted authorities to the fact that a guy who was blackballed from a gun club because he was unstable has been stockpiling guns from local sporting goods stores and mail order websites.

That same database strikes fear – some real and some for political effect – in gun control opponents because it might be used to seize guns under an authoritarian ruler in the future.

I find that argument illogical. There are a lot of steps between people being allowed to wear a pistol in a holster in downtown stores and the new American Gestapo seizing deer rifles.

But this is a line that both sides stay away from.

Everyone agreed that some regulation is possible that could have helped in this situation.

Do we really need people to have the ability to order guns and ammo through the mail? It seems like this potentially anonymous transaction carries especially high potential for misuse.

However, several pointed out that crazy people are crazy and even without any guns, they could resort to bombs or other weapons. One used the NRA-approved “why not outlaw spoons and forks for causing diabetes.”

Of course, one bullet from one gun can end a life. One bite from one fork doesn’t pose the same risk. Maybe we should regulate forks and guns differently.

At the end of the day, I don’t want to take your guns. Hunt all you want. I don’t like deer or ducks that much, so shoot them all day if it makes you happy.

But I doubt these hero scenarios where people wonder if a few armed people in that theater would have mattered. Sure, with a few tear gas canisters deployed, and a guy firing four different weapons wearing defensive armor in a dark room, I’m sure Dirty Harry would have popped him and ended the raid. You might also win the lottery Wednesday so make sure you buy a ticket.

Oh, and that pistol you bought your wife to protect herself, I hope she isn’t in the kitchen when the bad guy breaks in. Hopefully, you’ll have five minute's warning to get to that gun unlocked and loaded before you need it.

Because if you are keeping it loaded and unlocked, you are just as likely to have one of your kids shoot themselves or someone else as you are to use it in self-defense.

But if that gun gives you peace of mind – warranted or not – I think you should have it.

Whatever gets you through the night.

But I don’t think you should be able to buy the arsenal the Colorado shooter did in a matter of months. We can stop that without infringing on gun rights.

The Second Amendment’s right to keep and bare arms never said this right was unlimited.

Reasonable gun control is necessary. If a tragedy brings the discussion to the front of our minds, it is merely a logical response to a stimulus.

Our mental health system also needs to be inspected. Should we keep a registry of certain diagnoses to prevent guns from legally falling into their hands through internet purchases? We limit sex offenders. Those suffering from mental illness are unpredictable.

Arming them is not wise.

If more legislators could engage in conversations like the one my Facebook page, more problems would be solved.

Here’s hoping we can find a solution before the next bloody headline is written.

Kent Bush is the Augusta (Kan.) Gazette publisher and a columnist for GateHouse Media. He can be contacted at publisher@augustagazette.com.

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